Seven Days of Christmas, a Despicable Me story
by Shadow Zee
Summary: Gru doesn't normally have any kind of Christmas spirit, but now that he has Margo, Edith and Agnes, that's about to change.
1. Sunday

Let me start by saying that this is my first _Despicable Me_ fanfiction and I'm really enjoying it. I've been wanting to do a holiday-theme fic for a while and this one is it since this movie is AMAZING. Next, I originally wanted to upload a chapter a day since the title is "Seven Days of Christmas", but obviously it's not Sunday, so I'm a little behind. Bear with me, will ya? Let's see, what else? I sorta just made up the minion's language in hopes that it sounded like the stuff from the movie. Did I do well in that area? Well, that should be it...I think. I hope. Anyway, enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own _Despicable Me_ or any characters from the movie blah blah blah. I'm not trying to make a profit off of this thing.

* * *

_Seven Days of Christmas, a _Despicable Me _story_

_Chapter One: Sunday, December 19  
_

Edith shoved aside the smaller Agnes, trying to get a better view of the beautifully adorned homes that lined both sides of the snowy street. "I like that one!" the older girl said, pointing at a house with blinking candy canes that hung along the roof.

"That one's better!" shouted Agnes as she climbed on top of Edith to look out the window of the chrome tank-like vehicle.

"You can't even see anything, Agnes!" Edith nudged her sister off her, the movement causing her fuzzy Santa to flop over one of her blue eyes. She blew at it with irritation as Agnes tried another route to the window. It had been Margo's idea to wear the holiday hat instead of the pink one because of the suiting time of year, but at least the tasseled hat hadn't block her vision.

"Edith, she's just trying to look outside."

"Well then let her climb all over you, Margo."

"Gurls, gurls!" said a stern voice from the front of the tank's cab. "I am trying to drive and eet ees very deefficult to do so when there ees bickering een my ear."

The three quieted down immediately and sighed almost simultaneously.

"Sorry," commented Agnes in a whisper before clutching her stuffed unicorn tightly in her arms.

The rest of the ride home was, for the most part, calm. For the most part. At one point, little Agnes had caused a panic in the vehicle when she thought that someone had a herd of lit-up unicorns on their lawn when, in fact, they were simply Santa's reindeer. Gru almost drove off the icy road then and he was sure his heart had jumped into his throat before he'd swallowed it back down.

Thankfully for everyone, though, home was in sight and Gru backed into his driveway minutes later.

"Hey Dad, when are we going to put up lights on your house?" asked Edith as they entered the dark house that offered protection from the biting cold of winter.

Gru was unprepared to answer that question because he had never really thought about it. His mother had never decorated the house when he was young, so never did he make his own home cheery come the winter season.

He took the girl's coats and hung them on the head of a large, dead snake that acted as a very tall coat rack. "Um, well, I don't really do much for the holidays."

Instantly, the three girls' faces went downcast. "What do you mean you don't do much? What about a tree? Or lights?" questioned Margo.

"What about presents?"

Staring into Agnes's big brown eyes made it only slightly more difficult to say, "I do things deefferently here. You should know that by now. What ees important ees that we are together, right?"

Margo was the one to finally give in. Sighing, she responded, "Yeah, you're right." The older brown haired girl smiled, but she knew that Edith and Agnes wouldn't understand a Christmas without gifts or a tree. They were too young, after all.

Turning away, the Gru finished the conversation with, "I will be back up in a leetle while to make deener." Then he disappeared into a cannon that fell from the ceiling and consequently lowered him into his underground lab to do work as usual, leaving the girls still and unhappy.

"Don't worry, you guys. Christmas will still be great," said Margo reassuringly, trying to comfort not only her sisters, but also herself. She knew her father had not been kidding about him doing things differently than everyone else, but the older girl had still hoped that maybe Gru was a little more…normal.

* * *

With slumped shoulders, Gru entered his lab with an air of sadness. He saw that Margo was upset about the whole Christmas thing—or lack thereof—but weren't the holidays supposed to be a time of enjoying family? You don't need sparkling lights or a tall, green tree to have fun for the season, right? Gru was trying to convince himself of just that, but it wasn't working. Ever since he had begun bonding with the girls and actually feeling something deep for them, he had wanted nothing less than the best for them. Now this was his first Christmas ever with them and he hoped they would want to remember it. But already the once evil-mastermind had the feeling that his girls would not be feeling the joy that people should feel during the current season. Gru didn't want the touchy balance of heart between his life and the girls' to become suddenly thrown out of whack. He had to come up with a plan.

Straightening himself into a confident posture, Gru shouted, "Jon!"

Moments later, a short yellow bean-looking creature appeared and stood before Gru in a pair of blue overalls with a "G" sewn into the fabric and a pair of goggles that covered his one eye. He held a plastic cup of water up to Gru kindly, asking, "Un ah poke ah?"

"Uh, no thanks. I need you to assemble the others. I have a plan that I think you will all enjoy very much!"

The minion's eye went wide with excitement and he literally jumped with joy. "Ah, depoi!" It had been months since there had been any real work to do.

Grinning, Gru added before the minion could hurry away, "I will take that water now."

* * *

As promised, Gru returned sometime later to fix dinner for the girls. It had been getting dark when he went down to his lab and by the time he was back, it was already seven o'clock at night. And by that time, he knew they would be famished.

He was right. The moment he stepped onto the ground floor of the house, he was rushed by a tidal wave of hungry energy. "Dad, we've been waiting for so long! We're so hungry!" hollered Edith as she circled Gru's legs, one of which already had Agnes latched onto it.

"Okay, okay! I am going into the keetchen now," Gru said, wobbling under the strain of having his arm being tugged at by Edith and his leg being clutched by Death-Grip Agnes. Margo hurriedly tried to pry off Agnes, asking her to let go, but she stuck to Gru like cement. A curled corner of the hallway rug finally did him—he tripped and came crashing to the floor, girls and all.

When he opened his eyes only moments later, he was greeted by a smiling, brown-eyed Edith. "Can we eat now?" she asked in impatient voice, obviously unharmed.

Gru moaned as he pushed himself onto his elbows. He was going to be achy in the morning. When he was finally back on his feet, he quickly said, "Let's not grab Daddy's legs and arms anymore for now, okay?"

Edith giggled and nodded in truce.

"Now I can make—Wait a meenute. Where's Margo?"

"I'm right here," she said from behind him, holding Agnes's hand, but in reality she was restraining the giddy girl from tackling Gru's leg again. "Can we have dinner now?"

Gru was relieved to see that the once unhappy child had become a little more cheerful since their last conversation, for her eyes had most of their pleasant sparkle back in them.

"Yes, we can have dinner now. What do you guys want to eat?"

Immediately, Edith and Agnes jumped up and down excitedly as they both shouted their suggestions. Gru heard pancakes, pizza, burgers, and even sushi in there somewhere—although he was pretty sure neither of them knew what sushi was—but in the end, after much deliberation and a nonchalant shrug from Margo, it was decided that it was going to be breakfast for dinner, which would have been way more enjoyable had Gru been able to tell the girls what he was planning for the days ahead. But what is a surprise if you spoil it?

* * *

Ta-da! Chapter one is done and on to chapter two! Whoot! What did you think? Comments and reviews are always welcome and I'd really like to know how I'm doing on Gru's accent and pronunciation and the minions' language. Phew. Okay. Onwards, my despicable followers! Do I even have followers?


	2. Monday

Well I'm hoping things are going well so far. Chapter one was a little short and I'm sorry about that for those who don't like small chapters. This one is a smidge longer. So go crazy!

* * *

_Seven Days of Christmas, a _Despicable Me _fanfiction_

_Chapter Two: Monday, December 20  
_

Down in his lab, Gru's minions worked vigorously at a project that Gru planned would knock all other projects out of the water. The little yellow creatures hammered intensely at odd metal shapes and chattered while they crafted something with strange shimmering material and colorful crafts.

'"Hey! Steve, watch where you are swinging that thing!" Gru managed to say as he avoided being clobbered in the face with a massive pair of steel tongs as he exited the tube lift.

"Wa!" exclaimed Steve when he realized how close he was to smacking his master. "Oh mo pa," he added with a frown.

"Eet's okay. Just be more careful."

Steve nodded obediently and hurried off towards more of his minion companions to continue work on whatever it was they were doing.

The sudden feeling that Gru was no longer standing there alone made him very uncomfortable. He leapt back fearfully when he turned to find the goggle-wearing Dr. Nefario standing disturbingly close to him. "Gah! Uh, Dr. Nefario. What are you, uh, why are you…?"

The old scientist simply continued to stand there, staring at Gru with raised eyebrows and making him more uncomfortable.

"How is our newest creation coming along?" Gru finally asked with a steady, accented voice.

"_Your_ creation. Not _our_. I want nothing to do with this project."

Anyone could tell by Nefario's tone that he was very unhappy with Gru's plan. Not only was this specific plan unlike Gru's other ideas, but its purpose was preposterous. It wasn't his style and Dr. Nefario wanted to do nothing more than observe and if he could help it, he would choose to do not even that.

Gru, on the other hand, had great hopes for this. He observed his creation-in-production with a sly smile, giving himself a mental pat on the back. _When they see my creation_, he thought, _they weell never remember Christmas the same again!

* * *

_

"Dad, where are we going?" asked Margo suspiciously as the five of them packed into the silver tank, her breath visible in the icy air, despite the sun shining brightly that morning. "And why is one of your minions coming with us?"

"Bo pa oak ahmah," commented the little creature in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

Margo stared blankly at it, unsure of what to say.

"Billy ees joining us today to help us peeck out, uh, special things that we need." Gru shied away from Edith's curious gaze and Margo's questioning stare.

"What are you talking about?" asked Edith.

"Eet's a surprise. You'll know once we get—"

"Daddy!" shouted Agnes at ear-splitting level.

Everyone in the tank jumped and once again, Gru's heart did something he did not enjoy the feeling of. "Agnes! What ees eet? Why are you screaming?"

"I love surprises! Tell us what it is!"

"But then eet wouldn't be a surprise anymore."

"I wanna know! I wanna know!" she said, bouncing in her seat while happily squeezing her unicorn.

"You'll find out soon enough, Agnes. Now settle down—" Gru's eyes widened when he saw what his youngest daughter was doing. Turning to Margo, he asked nervously, "She's not…is she?"

Margo sighed and nodded. "Yep. She's holding her breath until you tell us where we're going."

Billy looked at Agnes uncertainly and then glanced at Gru, who had put his hand over his face with defeat. "Alright, alright, Agnes. You can breathe now. I will tell you where we are going…After we get there." He grinned devilishly.

She had just begun to take in sweet oxygen before Gru had mentioned that last part. Then Agnes started to hold her breath again.

"Ah ah ah, that won't work thees time. Eef you don't stop, we will stay home and you will ruin everyone's day." Gru crossed his arms stubbornly and waited. And waited. And continued to wait until he really believed that Agnes might pass out from holding her breath for so long, but she eventually gave in with a harsh sigh.

"Wow. No one's ever been able to get her to stop without first giving her what she wants," announced Edith, astonished.

Gru was momentarily surprised that it had worked. Agnes hadn't passed out, but instead was breathing quite regularly and giving Gru a disgruntled glare.

Smirking, he started the tank's massive engine and headed towards wherever he was planning.

* * *

The monstrous and tacky letters that sat atop the superstore spelled out "The Holiday Shoppe" and lit up in cliche green and red. Gru wasn't surprised when he pulled into the parking lot to find nearly every spot filled. Everyone and then some was there to finish last-minute shopping for wrapping paper, boxes, trinkets, ornaments, and lights. It was for this reason Gru normally hated this time of year—all the mad shoppers were on the loose. But then, Gru was there to shop, so was he mad as well? Of course not! He didn't yank items off shelves viciously or play tug-o-war with fellow shoppers. When he did shop—which was a rare thing indeed—he got in, got out, got home, with the use of the freeze-ray somewhere in between.

Inside, the place smelled of cinnamon candles and evergreen trees, a combination that brightened spirits and made the overall atmosphere all the more enjoyable for any family, no matter how mismatched it was.

"Woah, a holiday store! Cool!" exclaimed Margo excitedly. She certainly hadn't expected Gru to think about what she had said the night before about doing stuff for Christmas, but it was obvious he had taken some of her words to heart. She beamed at him as they all entered the store and he returned her warm smile with his own.

"Okay, we're here now. So what's the surprise? What are we getting?" Edith questioned Gru frantically, as though if she didn't receive an answer instantly, some sort of terrible catastrophe would envelop the world.

Agnes, who had never let go of her unicorn, grabbed her dad's hand with a huge grin and looked up at him, her eyes asking the same question.

"Well, I know how much you guys like the lights on all the houses, so," he paused for dramatic effect, "I have decided to get some for our house."

The girls couldn't contain their excitement then and they burst into beaming bundles of happiness, all huddling around Gru tightly, much to his discomfort—he still ached from last night's accident of tripping in the hall.

"Yay!" cheered a mustached Billy enthusiastically, his man wig shifting slightly on his head as he threw his arms up.

"Billy, why are you cheering? You already knew about thees."

"Oh yeah," he said, dropping his arms back down.

"Now, let's go find some lights."

* * *

By the time the group had returned home, it was already two in the afternoon. It wasn't the drive that had eaten up the time because while it had snowed the night before and the roads were a little slick, the store itself was only fifteen minutes away and the roads weren't that bad. No, most of the time used had been spent in the store.

Finding the lights had been the easy part. Picking out which colors and what type were the hard parts. And there was the constant issue of having to remind the girls what they were there for—lights. They all wanted to split off and explore the store and get more than was necessary for their shopping trip, but Gru was careful not to give into their demands.

Choosing the color of the lights was relatively difficult, which surprised Gru because he figured that having the girls all agree on a color would be simple. Wrong. Edith wanted only red, but Margo told her that that would probably make their house looked even creepier. Agnes like the string of lights that had the many colors on them. Margo said she didn't mind which colors were chosen, although she mentioned to Gru that she preferred the colorful ones as well. And Billy, whose job was to simply help carry the many boxes of lights, was too busy trying to act like a normal person to pay much attention to anything else—walking with an awkwardly confident stride, nodding to random people that he passed, and even attempting to strike up conversation with woman down the aisle before being snatched by a nervous Gru who had seen the whole thing.

So in the end, they had decided on classic rainbow lights to line the entire house and while Gru wasn't used to decorating his home for the holidays, he would certainly enjoy spending time with his daughters.

* * *

"A little to the left," shouted Margo to her father who was standing on a ladder leaned up against the house. "A little more. Just a little—"

"Please tell me eet ees even," he said loudly for her to hear him.

"Yep! You're good!"

Gru quickly nailed the last piece of stringed lights to the roof and carefully began making his decent down the ladder. Minions reached out through various windows along the way to keep the ladder from sliding and dropping Gru a very long way.

"Can I come up, Daddy?" yelled Agnes in her sky blue winter coat. Her yellow striped scarf was covering her mouth when she spoke, but Gru still understood her perfectly well.

"No! No, Agnes. Stay down there weeth your seesters. Daddy ees coming down now." There was anxiety in his voice as he spoke and he could feel his heart creeping farther up into his throat each time he looked down.

Grabbing Agnes's mitten-covered hand gently, Margo glanced up at her dad. He was almost there…

"Ahh!" screamed the minion holding the ladder through the second-story window. "Ba poi, Kyle! Ba poi!" Gru's "dog" Kyle had snuck up behind Stewart and latched onto his leg. The startled minion fell backwards, letting go of the ladder. The second minion who held the ladder at the first story of the house could not hold on without the help of Stewart and yelled in panic.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no! Don't let go!" shouted a panicking Gru, but it was too late.

Below, Margo, Edith and Agnes watched in helpless horror as their father fell. The three simultaneously shouted out for him as he hit the snow with a thump and white powder sprayed upwards.

Hurrying over to where he fell, the girls gathered around to find Gru lying in the snow beside the ladder. Already, the minions who had been holding the ladder were hurrying outside, despite the cold, to check on their master. Stewart's pant leg was shredded, but at least there wasn't a dog thing attached to him.

"Daddy?" whispered Agnes as she kneeled down, holding her unicorn so tightly that the stuffing threatened to burst from its seams.

"Come on, Dad," said Margo, hoping he was only joking.

Edith cocked her head strangely, saying, "Dad?"

Several moments of silence passed and just as Margo began to grow seriously worried, two big arms flew up in a furry to scoop up the three children. They scream with surprised and relief and the two minions behind them sighed loudly, glad that that scare was over.

"I had you, deedn't I?" asked Gru with a clever smile, still hugging the girls.

"Yeah! We thought you were dead!" exclaimed Edith in a not-so-serious manner, just like her usual self.

"Uh, well I deedn't mean to frighten you that badly." Gru frowned.

"I wasn't scared, Daddy!"

"I bet your weren't, Agnes." His smile returned. "Hey Margo, are you okay?"

The older girl couldn't seem to let go of Gru, like if she did, he might disappear and never come back. Gru took her by the shoulders to lean her back. There were tears shimmering behind her glasses.

"Margo…"

"Could you…maybe not play around…like that?" She looked up at her dad with sad, brown eyes.

Gru suddenly felt absolutely terrible. His idea of a fun joke had become a horrible nightmare. The falling ladder hadn't been planned, but he when he landed and realized he was fine, Gru figured that the girls would want to know if he was alright. He would trip them up, and he had. Only Margo had taken the joke to heart and now Gru felt utterly guilty. It seemed the day had gone from wonderful to complete hell in a mere minute.

"Margo, I'm sorry. I deedn't mean to…" He sighed miserably, figuring no amount of apologizing would suffice.

"It's okay, Dad. I still love you." She hugged him lovingly. "And the lights look great." Margo grinned forgivingly and looked up at the house.

Gru smiled before chastising Steward and Dave for letting go of the ladder. He was still alive, thankfully, but his back was definitely going to hurt in the morning. "Well I theenk that's enough fun for one day, don't you agree, gurls?"

He turned away from his disciplined minions—who were grounded from watching television and participating in tea time with the girls—and found himself facing three children armed with snowballs. "What ees thees?"

"For pulling such a bad joke," said Margo,

"We're going to fight you," Edith tossed a snowball into the air before catching it again,

"With snowballs," finished Agnes, holding a deformed glob of what she considered a snowball.

"Ah, mopie ba," chirped Dave.

Steward nodded excitedly. They hadn't been grounded from snowball fights.

Gru suddenly regretted any joke he had ever pulled. Swallowing hard, he braced himself for the cold impacts that would soon come. He would be glad when the day was over.

* * *

Not much to say, really. I hope everyone is fairing well while they read and like I said, comments are AWESOME. I try to respond to them whenever I can. Also, yes, Gru hurt himself again. He will being having some sort of accident in every chapter. lol! Because I feel like it. (:


	3. Tuesday

_Seven Days of Christmas, a _Despicable Me _fanfiction_

_Chapter Three: Tuesday, December 21_

Gru awoke with a start to the sound of his alarm buzzing irritatingly. "Oj!" he shouted with surprise. The sleepy former villain searched his dark room in a confused state, trying desperately to figure out where the sound was coming from. But when he realized that it was his alarm, he put a hand to his face, exasperated, and sighed. He glanced at the time, though he already knew what it was, for he had set the alarm himself.

One o'clock. In the morning. Gru sighed again for good measure before crawling out of bed to change out of his black silk pajamas and into his black jacket and striped scarf. Already could he feel yesterday's fall off the ladder pinching at his back. And his chest was still sore from landing on it after the trip in the hallway on Sunday. Gru had the idea that this holiday would not be as pleasant for him as he had hoped.

Quietly making his way into the girls' bedroom, Gru turned on their individual lights near their beds, making sure to point them away from their faces so they didn't go blind when the girls opened their eyes.

"Margo, Edith, Agnes," he whispered.

Kyle was the first to wake. He groggily opened his bug eyes and snarled at Gru when they finally adjusted.

"No, no Kyle. Go to sleep."

"Dad, why are you talking to Kyle?"

Gru turned to find Edith sitting sleepily up in her bomb bed, rubbing her eyes. "Uh, I have another surprise, but you first need to wake up your seesters and make sure you bring your coats and slippers." He smiled and nodded at Edith.

"Where are we going? What time is it?" she asked tiredly.

"Eet's a surprise."

"Remember what happened to Agnes the last time you said that?" Edith crossed her arms, her Santa falling back over her eyes.

Gru sighed. "Yes, but you will not have to wait long for this surprise. Now hurry and get your seesters ready. Meet me downstairs when you are done." Then he hurried out the bedroom and disappeared down the hall, but not before he could say, "And remember, coats and slippers please!"

Edith rolled her eyes when she saw the time, but did as her father asked and woke her sisters.

* * *

It was nearly twenty minutes later when the three children wandered into the dimly-lit living room. Gru was seated on the crocodile couch, ready to fall back asleep, but when he saw his daughters he was right awake. "Good morning!" he said, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically for that time of the day. Then he saw Agnes holding onto Kyle. "Um, Kyle can't come, Agnes. Please put heem down."

Kyle snarled, but was put down with a sigh from Agnes. The creature sleepily wandered back up the stairs, probably to fall back asleep in Agnes's bed.

"It's not even 1:30, Dad. Why are we awake?" asked a drowsy Margo as she pushed her glasses farther up her nose.

"And why do we need are coats? Isn't it a little early to go outside?" Edith held up her pink jacket for emphasis, but she quickly dropped her arm back down under the weight of it, for she was way too tired to do much of anything at the moment. Her sisters would surely concur.

"I'm sorry that eet's so early, but I wanted to show you gurls something very, very cool. Come weeth me to my lab," said their father as he scooped up a half-asleep Agnes into his arms and took Edith's hand. Margo took Edith's free hand as they ventured towards Gru's laboratory.

When they arrived, Margo took note of how empty the place was. During the day, the whole lab bustled with life as minions ran every which way doing work and chores, but now the entire lab seemed bare. Well, except for the occasional minion that had fallen asleep on the job and was never moved, like Steward from the day before with a chewed up pant leg who was currently passed out beside the pinball table.

"Okay gurls, now I want you to close your eyes nice and tight. No peeking!" Gru made sure everyone had their eyes closed before ushering them into a vast room. He pressed several buttons on the wall before the ceiling began to open up and expose the world to them.

When a swift breeze swept through the room, Edith and Margo shivered and Agnes snuggled closer to Gru. Their slipped and jackets protected them, however.

"You can open them now."

And when they did, the three girls gasped in astonishment. Looking up at where a portion of the ceiling had once been was an opening that showed a perfectly round full moon that hung brightly in the sky and got rid of the need for lights to be turned on in the room.

Gru smiled happily when he saw his daughters' faces. "Well, what do you theenk?"

"It's beautiful," commented Margo.

Agnes removed her face from her dad's chest to see what the fuss was about and beamed as brightly as the lunar surface itself.

"I've never seen the moon that big before!"

"Well, Edith, that's because tonight is a special night for the moon."

"Why is it special, Daddy?" asked a curious little Agnes, once again holding a stuffed unicorn as thought if she didn't have one, the world might come to an end.

"Tonight is a—"

"Ooh!" exclaimed a squeaky voice suddenly from behind them.

"Jorge! I am trying to…ah, what ees eet?" asked an impatient Gru.

"Eh moon?"

"What? Fine. You can watch eet too."

Margo lifted a brow at the little creature before turning her attention back to her dad.

"Anyway, today the moon eclipses," he finished.

"Eclisp…eclisps…"

"No, no, no, Edith. _Eclipses_. There will be an eclipse in…" Gru ckecked his wristwatch. "Well, it begins in about four minutes."

"What does that mean? That word, Daddy?" Anges asked, a little more alert and awake now.

"Eet means the moon ees going to go behind the earth so that eets shadow weell cover the moon."

"Ooh!" said Jorge, the minion, again.

"I've set a place for us to watch eet," Gru added, guiding Margo and Edith to a set of cushioned chairs in the center of the room with perfect view of the moon. "You weell need to find a chair, Jorge."

The yellow minion sighed and headed over to a corner where a stack of plastic chairs sat gathering dust. He hurried back just in time as Gru was sitting down in his seat. "Moi! Na moi! Naaa!" he shouted, but a little too late. His master had already sat down. Jorge could see the chair's legs buckling below Gru.

"What ees eet now, Jo—" A sudden crash to the floor sent an echo through the empty room. A loud shout, however, made an even bigger echo. "Jorge!" Gru yelled with rage and pain as he rubbed his behind. He was so thankful that Agnes had left him to see Margo only moments before he'd sat down.

"Poka," said the minion quietly.

Edith, Margo and Agnes watched in slight confusion as their dad sat on the floor beneath splinters of wood.

"Don't 'sorry' me, Jorge! Explain yourself!"

"Uh, my ah depoi ina poka." Jorge's expression was that of nervousness and a little guilt.

But Gru immediately calmed down after hearing his response. The minions had required some of the chair's bolts for the project Gru was having them work on, so Gru had to look at the bigger picture. However, he knew his butt was going hurt in tomorrow. Sighing, Gru said as he carefully stood up, "Alright, alright. Just get me another chair, please."

Jorge was grateful that he hadn't been grounded like Steward and Dave and he hurried off to grab a chair for Gru.

"Sorry about that, gurls. Just a leetle acceedent. No beeg deal," he said, grinning as if nothing had happened at all.

Margo eyed him suspiciously before saying, "I think it's starting."

Sure enough, when Gru eyed the sky he noticed that the moon was definitely beginning to eclipse. "See how that side ees getting darker? That ees Earth's shadow."

"Woah!" exclaimed Edith in her chair.

"Do you think there are unicorns on the moon, Daddy?"

"Uh, no. I do not." Gru suddenly remembered Vector and thought, _But I know what _is_ on the moon and eet ees about to get very dark for them_. He smiled evilly until Jorge appeared with a plastic chair that had a soft pillow on its seat and then he sat down in his own chair. "Thank you. Hey Margo, there ees popped corn by your chair. Could you pass eet down to your seesters, please?"

"Sure," responded the eldest daughter, no longer sleepy and very eager to watch the lunar eclipse. She was happy that her father was going to such lengths to make them all happy this holiday, but she remembered what he had said two days before about being together as the important part and Margo realized how right he was. Having her sisters and Gru together under the eclipsing moon—a celestial thing she had never seen before—was the best thing she could have asked for. Gru _was_ different from other dads; he was better, cooler and lot more fun than any father Margo could have asked for and she knew her sisters were feeling the same thing.

* * *

An hour later, the moon had reached totality and glowed red behind the earth's shadow. Everything was bathed in the color that was both eerie and beautiful. The gurls never stopped smiling through the whole thing and Jorge had his jaw dropped the entire time. And while Gru did enjoy the amazing sight of the eclipsing moon, he found more happiness when he took little side glances at his daughters and saw their grinning, popcorn-stuffed faces. This was a show they would not soon forget.

Shortly after the moon became fully eclipsed, all three girls fell asleep in their chairs. Even Jorge was no longer awake. Gru sighed when he realized that he was probably the only one awake in the entire house—the minions were scattered about the lab, probably dreaming of photocopying their butts and dancing to"Swan Lake", Dr. Nefario was passed out in his one-speed scooter somewhere, and the girls were sleeping peacefully under the shadowed moon. Smiling, Gru realized what a lovely life he now led ever since Margo, Agnes and Edith had become a part of it.

* * *

As expected, Gru woke later that morning with a pain where there shouldn't be pain. But he recalled the eclipse and how happy his daughters had been in watching and suddenly he felt better.

When he glanced at his clock, the time read 10:49am. "Ugh," he said, tiredly. He could hear children's voices coming from downstairs and he knew the girls were awake. So he flopped out of bed, got changed for a second time that day, and headed down his winding stairs.

"Daddy! Daddy!" yelled an overjoyed Agnes. She rushed up to her father quicker than he could have reacted and jumped his leg.

"Ah, ah, ah, Agnes. Remember what happened last time?"

The little girl listened to her father and let go of his leg before rushing back to where she had been before. Margo and Edith were there as well, all gathered in a circle around the floor.

"Look what I made!" Agnes had returned to Gru and shoved a piece of colored paper up in the air.

On it, Gru saw what appeared to be the moon and some sort of purple blob monster.

"That's the elipse and that's a unicorn!"

"Oh! Eet's very…good," hesitated Gru uncertainly. "Have you gurls had breakfast yet?"

"No, but we'd definitely love some," answered Margo happily on the floor. She, too, was drawing pictures.

Gru nodded. "Okay, how about something seemple? Like cereal." He was exhausted and really didn't want to cook anything.

"Cereal sound fine," said Margo, clutching her stomach, but it was Edith's that made the monstrous grumbling.

"I'll eat anything right now." Edith smiled up at her father.

"Me too!" said Agnes excitedly. Changing the subject suddenly, she asked, "Can we watch another elipse tonight, Daddy?"

"Sorry, but that was the last one thees year."

"Aw," she said sadly.

"But there ees a meteor shower next month that we could watch." Gru smiled in hopes that that would cheer her up.

It did because her face lit up brightly, as did the other two girls.

"Now, who ees hungry?"

* * *

The rest of the day was spent lounging around and doing, for the most part, nothing. Once in a while, Dr. Nefario would call Gru down to the lab via the television communicator to help with the progress of whatever it was he was so secretly working on.

The girls, thankfully, stayed relatively occupied. Since going outside was out of the question—the clear skies that had allowed for perfect viewing of the moon had been eaten up by a wintry blizzard—Agnes and Edith colored and when they became bored, they crafted snowflakes and chain loops out of paper to hang around the house. Margo helped in their creation and by the end of the day, there were enough snowflakes to cover the living room walls. They smiled once they were finished and asked their father if he could help hang them up.

Gru frowned because the last time he had his feet off the ground, he ended the day in pain. "I weell get my, uh, helpers to do that." He still refused to use the word "minion" around them because it sounded too sinister.

Whatever they were to be called, the yellow bean creatures hung the girls' creations as they were told to and when they were finished, the interior of the house was completely decorated with paper flakes and colorful chains that wrapped up the staircase and hung from the ceiling. Gru's house would certainly have won Most Creatively Decked Out Home if any competition judge had dared step foot beyond the front door.

"Eet's…beautiful," praised a hesitant Gru. He wasn't used to his house being decorated, but he had to admit that the girls did a fanciful job nonetheless.

"Thanks, Dad," said Edith kindly.

"What are we gonna do tomorrow?" questioned Agnes curiously, as if today was already dead and gone.

Gru eyes widened momentarily. "Let me sleep on eet, okay gurls?"

* * *

TRANSLATION: "Oj" means "oh my" in Russian.

For those of you who keep up to date on those sort of things, there was actually a total lunar eclipse early Tuesday morning. It was beautiful and lit up everything red once it reached totality, at least where I was at. I really wanted to keep this chapter laid back so I added the eclipse because it worked perfectly. And next month really will be a meteor shower-the Quadrantids. I watched this shower one year and it was amazing during the peak. So keep your eyes peeled when it's time for them. (:

I'm hoping to upload Wednesday's chapter today as well, if I finish it, that is. I don't want to be behind anymore in this story, but we'll see how today goes. I write chapters pretty slowly and this one took about 3.5 hours, so I'm not sure. We'll see.


	4. Wednesday

Whoo! I was actually able to finish this chapter in record time. I wasn't sure, at first, what kind of injury to give Gru this time, but I figured it out. :D Happy reading!

* * *

_Seven Days of Christmas, a _Despicable Me _fanfiction_

_Chapter Four: Wednesday, December 22  
_

Margo gasped and ducked just in time as a snowball was launched at her. "Hey! No faces!" she exclaimed, pushing her lenses farther onto her nose.

"I didn't see any rules when we started this game," said Edith as she balanced two snowballs in her palms.

A slick grin spread across the oldest girl's face. She saw something that Edith did not until it was too late.

Agnes, in her blue coat and yellow scarf, tossed frigid snow into her sister's face. "Haha, I got you!"

"Aw, Agnes, stop!" Edith tried shielding her face, but she couldn't escape the snow being shoveled at her. When it finally stopped, Edith uncovered her eyes to find her little sister being scooped up by Gru.

"And now I have got you!"

Agnes giggled excitedly in her father's arms as he held her up into the air. She threw her hands outwards as if she could touch the sky.

The sun was shining brilliantly in the mid-afternoon sun and had warmed the snow up just enough to make it packable. The blizzard from the night before had dropped nearly a foot of snow onto the town and the girls were making the most out of it.

Gru, who didn't make it a habit to play outside, would have been lying to himself if he thought that it wasn't fun. They were all bundled up and warm and could enjoy the wintry weather for hours without feeling the slightest bit cold. Even so, the family had chosen to stay indoors for the first part of the day, putting finishing touches on the paper artworks that the girls had created the day before.

Gru also had work to do down below in his laboratory. The minions were working diligently on his crafty project and the former villain grew more and more excited by the minute.

Dr. Nefario, on the other hand, had not been in a good mood all week. Ever since Gru had told him his proposal for the project, Nefario had acted like the Grinch. Of course it wasn't Gru's style to come up with such a plan, but it was going to be great. He just knew it. But Dr. Nefario didn't like how it wasn't like every other plan Gru had—it wasn't villainous or evil. In fact, it was quite the opposite and Nefario was cared little for that.

But at least the minions were loving every part of it. Not only would the outcome of Gru's project be amazing, but the creation of it seemed to be quite enjoyable for his little helpers. They were going to great lengths to make this thing just as Gru had envisioned it and in the end, it was going to be perfect.

For now, however, Gru wasn't worrying about his plan or what was becoming of it. He could always tend to the finer details and help his minions out later. Right now it was time to act like a child again. Well, maybe not again. Whenever Gru had acted like a child back when he _was_ a child, his mother had always reprimanded him for being immature.

His girls didn't care about that, though. He was chucking snowballs, falling into snowdrifts, making snow angels and laughing like winter was the greatest thing since buttered bread and none of them minded. If anything, they were encouraging it.

"I deedn't realize how much fun the snow could be," said Gru with a smile while Agnes was perched on his back.

"Didn't you ever play in it when you were little?" asked Margo curiously. She held a snowball tightly in her grip, but was waiting for the proper time to release it.

Gru hesitated. "Well, when you are growing up to be a veelian, there ees leetle time to mess around like thees."

Margo stared at her dad, saddened by what he had said. _Who doesn't play in the snow as a kid?_ She mentally asked herself.

"But I am finding that eet ees actually kind of fun."

A snowball suddenly exploded across one side of Gru's face. Chunks of it rolled down his cheek while his face suddenly went serious.

Edith, the one responsible for throwing the snowball, began to regret doing so. She wondered if maybe since Gru never played in the snow, he wouldn't like it very much if it was smashed against his face. "Whoops," she said apologetically.

Gru calmly reached down then and formed his own snowball.

Margo and Edith eyed it very cautiously, Margo dropping her snowball nervously.

Then he handed it up to Agnes, who took it graciously and unleashed it onto the other girls. As expected, it missed both of them, but the message it sent was quite clear—it was war.

Instantly, the family went into a hurried frenzy, trying to find shelter behind snowdrifts and the front stairs. Gru announced from the edge of the yard where he and Agnes hid, "You can run, but you can't hide!" He gently took Agnes off his shoulders then to be able to protect her better from her sisters' snowy arsenal. But he was taken by surprise when she screamed and began to panic.

"Ah! My unicorn!" she yelled at her father.

His eyes widened with shock as she raised her voice, but he eventually was able to comprehend what was happening—Agnes had dropped her unicorn stuffed animal at some point during the run from the middle of the yard to where they were now near the fence.

"It's gonna get all wet!" she said hysterically.

"Come on, Dad! Come and get it!" yelled a cocky Margo.

"Yeah, come and get it," chirped Edith.

Gru frowned and peeked his head up to see above the short snow hill they were hidden behind. Sure enough, there was Agnes's unicorn lying in the snow. Right in the middle of the yard. He would be a perfect target if he exposed himself for the toy. But looking at Agnes's face made it very difficult to just leave it there helplessly.

Taking in a dramatically deep breath, Gru put himself in a position to ready himself for sprinting. "I weell go get your uneecorn, but stay here," he said bravely.

Agnes nodded and said, "Wait! You'll need these." She immediately began packing a bunch of snowballs and handing them to her dad, who smiled in response.

"Thank you. Weesh my luck," he finished before giving Agnes a quick kiss on the forehead and charging heroically out into the battlefield. He was halfway to the stuffed toy when the first enemy snowball made landfall. It landed only inches from him and then next one was even closer. It was when a third snowball hit squarely in his path that he opened fire as well.

Laughs and giggles could be heard coming from Margo and Edith's hiding spot from behind the snow-covered tank in the driveway.

"I know where you leeve, gurls!" yelled Gru in a battle cry sort of manner.

Moments later, he had reached the unicorn. He heard Agnes cheer for him from behind as he scooped up the fluffy creature.

As he turned around, a snowball whizzed past his right ear and he instinctively dropped to the ground.

"Unicorn!" cried a worried Agnes from across the snowy combat zone.

"I need back up! Help!" Gru pretended to sound in severe distress as he called for Agnes to join him on the front line. He didn't expect her to come to his aid so quickly, but only seconds after he had called for her, Agnes was at his side snatching up her unicorn and making more snowballs for him since she had begun to realize that he had better aim. Nonetheless, she made her own attempts at striking the oncoming attackers, to little avail, however.

Gru grinned as he returned fire against Margo and Edith who had come back into the yard and were closing the distance between them and Gru's team.

In the house, several minions had heard the snowball fight outside and had gathered at the front windows to observe and cheer on everyone.

Just when the battle couldn't get any more intense as snowballs flew every which way and everyone was getting hit, the two teams collided in a snowy mass of laughter.

Margo wrapped her arms around Gru's waist tightly as she burst into laughter while Edith threw her last snowball at her father before joining her sister in a hug. Agnes cheered excitedly, making her unicorn dance oddly before grabbing Gru's leg in a strong embrace.

Gru's adrenaline-pumped heart instantly settled down then. He hugged his three girls back lovingly and wished that the moment would never end.

The minions watching out the windows cheered loudly and began to hug one another as well.

"So who won exactly?" asked Edith, still holding onto her dad.

"We did!" cried Agnes as she bounced on Gru's leg.

"I think it was a tie," said Margo, settling the discussion.

"Well I think Dad should decide." Edith released Gru and looked up at him in her fuzzy red Santa hat.

Gru sighed as he released his other two daughters. Well, he released Margo, but Agnes hadn't released him. "Eet was a nice snowball fight and I theenk we all won een the end."

Edith cocked her head, unsatisfied. "But it's a snowball _fight_. There has to be a winner."

Gru eyed Margo, looking to her for any help, but she just crossed her arms and smiled, wanting an answer now as well.

"Okay, okay. The first person een the house and ready for deener is the weener."

At first, the three girls just looked at him, as if he was joking. But once he said "go", they hurried to the door as fast as cheetahs.

Laughing at his cleverness, Gru sighed and turned for the door. But he stopped short when he looked down and saw a familiar and rather unloving face looking up at him. "Eh, Kyle. Get back eenside," Gru said, pointing to the door. The fuzzy creature didn't budge and only growled viciously. "Please?" asked Gru.

The minions shied away from the windows and hurried back down to the lab. Their master would _not_ be in a good mood now. He never was whenever Kyle attacked him.

He was _definitely_ going to hurt in the morning.

* * *

Now that I am all caught up on the days, I will be able to upload a chapter a day to match the day that I'm writing about. Get what I'm saying? I hope everyone has awesome plans for the holidays!


	5. Thursday

I am right on schedule with this fic and that makes me so happy! It's making me more and more psyched about Christmas. Whoot! I've already gotten several wonderful comments about this story and those are what's keeping me going strong. **Shrine**, I want to thank you a hundred times over for your lovely words about this thing. I've re-read your comments multiple times just so I can remember why I'm writing this fic...to please people like you. You are so kind and I appreciate it! :D To everyone else, keep reading! Only 2 more chapter after this one!

* * *

_Seven Days of Christmas, a _Despicable Me _fanfiction_

_Chapter Five: Thursday, December 23_

With his left foot on the toilet seat, Gru reached down to it to remove the old gauze that wrapped neatly around his ankle, carefully covering the painful Kyle-bite. It really wasn't so bad. For the most part, there were only puncture wounds rather than lengthy gashes. But Kyle had many teeth and they weren't exactly the tiniest either.

He was nearly done doctoring himself when the doorbell to the hauntingly creepy house sounded. Gru jumped from where he was in the bathroom and winced as his ankle hit the edge of the counter. He almost fell backwards into the massive tub with a giant "G" tiled into it, but he luckily caught himself on the towel bar that stuck out from the wall beside him. On it was a draped cloth with yet another "G" sewn in the middle.

"Who ees over at thees time of the day?" asked Gru quietly while he straightened his black zip-up jacket. Glancing at his wristwatch, he realized that it was actually only 1:30pm. "Okay, so the time ees not so unusual, but I wasn't expecting any guests." Nonetheless, he had to see who it was. Sloppily, he finished wrapping his ankle and limped down the stairs as quickly as he could.

Despite the many times he had warned them not to, the girls had opened the door. But it wasn't that simple fact that made Gru cringe. It was who they had let in.

"Look, Daddy! Grandma's here!" cried a very excited Agnes before she shoved her newest unicorn toy into her grandma's face as they all sat on the crocodile couch.

"Oh, zat's very nice," she said kindly to the girl, her obvious French accent flowing through her words. Suddenly, she giggled. "Vhat is on your leg?"

Gru looked down to find that his gauze wrapping had unwound slightly and was dragging behind him like toilet paper stuck to the foot. He blushed slightly when everyone stared at him.

"Dad got mauled by Kyle," said Edith cooly.

Grandma burst into laughter then.

"I handled eet, Mom, and I weell be fine." Kneeling down, he quickly tucked his gauze away.

Finally, Grandma's chuckling subsided and she sighed happily, as if seeing her son in distress was amusing for her.

Suddenly Margo chimed in to change the subject. "Isn't this great, Dad?" the eldest daughter announced, smiling. "Grandma brought us stuff to make stockings!" Her brown eyes glistened brightly.

"I'm gonna draw unicorns on mine!"

Edith rolled her eyes at Agnes for mentioning the horned, mythical creatures yet again. "Well I'm going to put sparkles and glitter all over mine."

"Girls, girls," said Gru's mom sternly, holding her hands up like stop signs.

They all became hushed then and Gru just looked on blankly.

"You can decorate zee stockings however you like. Here are all zee zings you need." Grandma then removed a bag from within her purse that contained bottles of glitter in every color, boxes of markers, glue, and pipe cleaners.

All three girls' eyes lit up joyfully and they simultaneously reached for the plastic bag of goodies before it was snatched away by Gru who had suddenly appeared behind them.

"Son, vhat are you doing? Zose are for zee girls. Put it down."

Gru eyed his mom rebelliously. "Mom, thees stuff ees very messy." He shook the bag as if she wouldn't know what he was talking about if he hadn't.

"I don't want…" Gru paused when he glanced at his children.

Agnes already had tears forming in the corners of her big, brown eyes. Edith had her arms crossed gruffly to go along with her angry pouty face, and Margo was simply eyeing her father, mentally asking him if he really wanted to go through disappointing his kids again.

Gru sighed. "I don't want them to do thees een the leeving room. The keetchen is better." He grinned slightly, hoping that had worked.

It had. Agnes jumped up excitedly and Edith beamed. Margo eyed her dad a moment longer before giving in and smiling, too.

"Come on, gurls. I weell get the table set up." He was a shepherd to his little sheep as they followed him into the kitchen and to the table by the window where they would have a lovely view of the snowy world beyond.

When Gru left the kitchen, his mother was standing right there to meet him. "Ah!" he yelled and withdrew slightly. "Mother, do you theenk someday you could call before you come over?"

"Probably not. The children love it ven I surprise zem," she said, shrugging.

Gru sighed because he knew there would be no convincing his mother.

"Dad!" shouted Margo from the kitchen suddenly.

"What ees eet?"

"Agnes got glue in her hair!"

"Ugh, what next?" said their father, putting a hand to his face.

"Now there's glitter in it too!" cried Edith.

"What?" snapped Gru."I'm coming, I'm coming," he said quietly, as if he was exhausted just listening to them.

Gru's mother simply laughed.

He eyed her sharply since it was her fault for bringing the arts and crafts over.

"Don't look at me," she said dismissively. "If you had kept zem in zee living room, you could have kept a closer eye on zem."

"Now it's all over the floor!" announced a cheery Agnes.

"_That_ ees why they go een the keetchen." Growling, Gru walked stiff-shouldered to his daughters, terrified of the mess he was surely going to find.

* * *

Over an hour later, the kitchen floor, table, seats, walls, and ceiling were spotless again. Agnes's hair had to be scrubbed and washed vigorously for the drying glue to come out. She was lucky it didn't have to be cut.

Once everything and everyone was cleaned, Gru hid the glue from the girls, saying, "Eef you weesh to continue making thees sockies—"

"They're called stockings, Dad," corrected Margo with a smile.

"Right. Eef you weesh to keep decorating the stockings, you weell have to do so weethout the glue. Understand?"

The girls nodded in unison, agreeing that they, too, did not wish for another gluey incident.

"Good. Now can I trust you to not make a mess thees time?"

Agnes hung out her pinky. "We pinky promise."

Gru grinned kindly and latched his pinky around hers. "Good." Then he gave them back all their supplies—minus the glue—and rearranged everything on the table. He noted that there was one too many stockings, but did not dwell on the thought. "Daddy has work to do work een hees lab for a leetle while, but I won't be very long," Gru said as he kissed each of his daughters' foreheads and exited the kitchen, but not before his mother could grab his arm.

"I vant a vord with you."

Her tone sounded quite serious and that frightened Gru. He quickly went over his recent actions in his mind to find any mistake he could have made to make her upset, but he came up empty. Unless…

"I vant to talk to you about vhat you've been up to lately," she said as she pulled him into the living room, out of the girls' earshot.

"What do you mean, Mom?" asked Gru, putting an innocent smile on and pretending to be clueless.

"Vhat do I mean? You have lights hanging around your house. There are paper snowflakes falling from zee ceiling." Gru's mother pointed up without looking. There was a snowflake directly above her fingertip.

Eyeing the paper flake, Gru frowned. "So?" he said nervously.

"Zis is not the villain son I raised. You haven't done a villainous zing in months! Although I did notice several…severely dented cars outside of a coffee shop a few days ago zat had your name written all over zem."

Gru gulped. What was she getting at? Maybe he was having a change of heart about his old ways. But yes, he had…dented those cars, although "totaled" was a better word. "But you are the one who brought over the sockies for the gurls to decorate!" he exclaimed angrily.

His mother held up a hand and he instantly shut up. "I vasn't finished," she said calmly. "Vhat I am trying to say iz zat while I did like it better ven you ver stealing zings, I don't mind so much zis other side you've taken on."

Gru swore he saw his mom's lips switch upwards in a smile, but whatever it was disappeared before he could be sure. "You mean you're not mad?"

"You vear the title 'Dad' well and I cannot be mad at zat."

Now Gru was sure his mom was smiling and he joined her. Unfortunately, a hug would have been too mushy for the both of them, so they just stood there with content little grins on their faces until Gru's wristwatch began to buzz. They were both snapped out of their peaceful reveries as Gru glanced at his watch. "I have to get to work now. I won't be long. Could you possibly watch the gurls so they don't have another acceedent een the keetchen?"He pleaded to his mother.

Sighing and nodding, she said, "Fine."

Gru smiled again and hurried off to his rhino chair. "Bye, gurls!" he shouted. Right then, the loose end of his ankle wrap came undone and crossed paths with his other foot. He stepped on it and fell forward with a gasp as his face made contact with the back of the rhinoceros. Falling back onto his butt, which was still sore from landing on it after the chair in the lab broke beneath him, he was relieved that his mother was in the kitchen with the girls and hadn't seen what he'd done.

Standing up and straightening his jacket, Gru tucked away the stray end of the gauze beneath his pant leg more carefully this time and sat down in the chair. His ankle pulsed from being tugged at during the tripping accident, his butt hurt just by sitting on it alone, and now his face stung from smacking into the hard leather back of the rhino. _Fantastic_, he thought as he made his way down to his lab.

When he arrived, the sight he saw was energizing. Minions were rushing to and fro, babbling in their jumbled language, squeaking out orders to each other and occasionally causing harm to one another in some way.

Gru smiled when he saw his helpers hard at work to finish the project in time for Christmas. Already it as the 23rd and yet they were ahead of schedule. Clasping his hands together with excitement, Gru grinned slyly.

"Gru!" came a voice from behind several minions and a table that was filled with microchips and blinking lights.

The ex-villain squinted. "Dr. Nefario?"

"Yes, Gru. I'm over here. Listen Gru, we need to talk." The mad-looking scientist had a serious tone and a grim expression. "What happened to your face?" he asked when Gru found him, noticing the growing bruise on his forehead and his painfully red nose. "That looks like it's gonna hurt in the morning."

Grumbling, Gru shook his head. "Nevermind that. Ees everything alright?"

"What? Yes, I slept alright."

Gru's brows furled with slight confusion. "No, no, no. I said, ees everything alright? Ees something wrong weeth the project?"

"Oh! Well, the project is fine," he said, slumping his shoulders as if knowing the project was going well was something he hated to be true.

Sighing, Gru asked, "Well then what ees the problem?"

"I've been thinking more and more about this thing and how it's been affecting your villainy—"

"Hold that thought," interrupted Gru. "What ees eet, Dave?" he asked as he turned around to look at the yellow creature tugging at his pant leg.

"Mi ha ohp ka, eh, ba poi?" the little minion shrugged.

Gru thought for a moment as if Dave's words were of importance. "If we put them all een, we weell probably blow a fuse or something. Just use what ees there and then start putting them all together."

Dave cheered. "Weehehe!"

"Yes, yes. We are almost feenished," said Gru nonchalantly, dismissing his minion. "Now what were you saying, Dr. Nefario?"

The scientist sighed before trying to begin again. "I was saying that—"

"Oh wait! I forgot to tell Dave about the energy converters! Can you tell me later, Dr.?" Gru asked, but he was already hurrying away.

Dr. Nefario hung his head impatiently and groaned.

* * *

"Hey Dad, what do you think?" asked Edith as she held up her red stocking. It was sloppily decorated with green glitter. It appeared that she had simply removed the glitter container's top and poured a bunch on, but Gru insisted at that it was beautiful.

Agnes's stocking, as she promised, had unicorns prancing across it. They were drawn stick-figure style and were nearly completely shrouded in purple sparkles.

"They are all very nice," complimented Gru. "Margo, you deed a very good job, too."

And she really had. Gru had never noticed how creative she was and how much she was capable of. She used the markers spell out her name, with each letter being a different color and she carefully sprinkled glitter inside the "a", "g", and "o". There wasn't any glue, but the some of the glitter at least stuck to the felty fabric of the stocking. Then she used the markers to draw a snowman and snowflakes in the bare areas of the white top part of the stocking where her name was. For the rest, she made swirls and scribbles with Agnes's help.

"Thanks," she said, smiling. "Agnes helped."

"Well you all deed a great job." He stopped when he noticed that there were only three stockings now, when he was sure he had counted four before he had left to go to his lab. "Wait, I thought there was an extra socky."

Margo's eyes widened slightly, as did the other two girls'. "Um, yeah. Grandma took it when she went back home. She, uh, wanted a stocking, too." Smiling innocently, Margo was convincing enough to slip under Gru's radar.

Shrugging, he said, "Whatever. Now go wash up for deener. Eet's homemade spaghetti and meatballs tonight."

Smiles spread across the girls' faces as they hurried off to wash away the glitter and marker from their hands and faces.

Sighing, Gru cleaned up the mess that was left behind on the table. "Now why would Mom want a socky?" He wondered. "Hm, oh well." Shrugging again, he finished cleaning and prepared dinner.

* * *

Many hours later, the girls were full, in bed and asleep. The kitchen had been restored to its previous glory and Gru had been exhausted by the end of it all.

So now he, too, lay in bed, dreaming of his wondrous project and his daughters as they bounced with joy upon seeing it. But his sweet dream was interrupted by the sudden ringing of his cell phone on the side table by the spiked bed. Gru awoke with a start and attempted to shut off of his alarm, which hadn't been going off in the first place.

By the time he had realized that it was his phone that was actually making the rucus, he had missed the call. Looking at the screen, he saw that is was Dr. Nefario. _Why is he calling so late?_ asked Gru to himself as he speed-dialed the Doctor sleepily. He glanced at the clock beside his bed to see that the time was 11:58pm.

"Hello? Gru?" said a voice at the other end.

"What ees eet, Dr. Nefario? Why are you calling me so late?" He wondered if something was wrong down in the lab.

"Gru, we need to talk."

* * *

Dun dun dun! *gasp* lol! I hope all is going well for everyone who is reading this, including **Shrine** whose comments are an absolute JOY to read! :D This chapter was probably the longest one yet, but I think the next two might be shorter. I'm going to be busy the next couple of days, so I won't have as much time to write, but fear not! They will not disappoint!


	6. Christmas Eve

Well, so much for a shorter chapter. DX Oh well! I really enjoyed writing this one. Gru is such a fun character to play around with! And I'm psyched that it's Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas, a day when the final chapter goes up! (cries) But it's been fun and like always, THANKS FOR THE COMMENTS! :D

* * *

_Seven Days of Christmas, a _Despicable Me _fanfiction_

_Chapter Six: Friday, December 24, Christmas Eve_

Gru hurried down to the lab after he got off the phone with Nefario. He hadn't bothered to change out of his pajamas because the Doctor sounded too serious to be messing around with.

When he arrived, there were dozens of minions still bustling about. Gru's goal was to get the project finished today—Christmas Eve—and then add any last-minute touches to it later that night. Still, they were ahead of schedule, but the minions were in the last stages of the production and without Nefario helping them along, since he had chosen not to participate, Gru had to be sure that he was ready every minute of the day to help out whenever necessary.

But as Gru observed his helpers, he noticed that none of them seemed to require assistance. There didn't seem to be any problem at all. So then why had Dr. Nefario called him down in the first place?

"Ah, Gru."

Gru jumped as his scientist friend appeared behind him in his scooter. "I thought something was wrong." A confused expression appeared on Gru's face.

Nefario shook his head to rid Gru of his nervousness for the project. "No, no, no. Nothing's wrong with it."

"Then why have you called me down here at meedmight on the eve of…" He hesitated, not sure if mentioning Christmas in front of Nefario was a smart idea.

"The eve of Christmas? See Gru! You're obsessed with this holiday!"

"Ph, I'm not obsessed weeth eet!" Gru shook his head as if the mere idea of such a thing was completely ridiculous. "The mere idea of such a theeng ees completely reediculous!"

Dr. Nefario just glared at him through his round goggles.

Growing uncomfortable, Gru shifted slightly.

Then, the Doctor removed a remote from his lab coat and turned on a monitor that was conveniently placed beside the two of them. On the screen was a view of the living room. The place was dark except for a small blue snowman night light that was plugged into a wall socket beside the crocodile couch.

Gru blush slightly when he saw the little blue light. Glancing over at Nefario, who was still glaring at Gru awkwardly, he said, "Eet gets dark een there at night. What eef one of the gurls comes downstairs for something and treeps?"

Nefario then pressed another button that zoomed in towards one corner of the living room. White snowflakes were clearly visible hanging from the ceiling and red and green paper chains were also easily seen dangling from the walls.

"So the gurls got a leetle creative. They are cheeldren, after all," said a nervous Gru, shrugging innocently.

Still staring, Nefario pressed another button that showed the living room window. The curtains were partially closed, but little stockings could be seen hanging beneath the sill.

Gru gave up then. "What do you want me to say, huh? They would be devastated eef there was no Christmas for them here. Eet's their first year weeth me and I want thees to be special." He stood up tall and with confidence, backing up his words with his self-assured posture while he crossed his arms.

"No one told you to save them when Vector kidnapped them. No one said you had you had to keep them. And no one is stopping you now from returning to your villainous ways…except them!" With each sentence, Nefario scooted his scooter closer to Gru until finally he was face to face him.

Gru took a step back then.

"Don't you remember how much fun it was stealing things that no one else thought could be stolen? What happened to the old Gru? The evil Gru?" questioned Nefario.

Several minions had stopped whatever it was they had been doing to listen to the conversation taking place.

"You can go back to it all."

Gru found himself leaning against a nearby table, thinking and contemplating what could be.

"But you know what you have to do." Nefario's voice went deep and sinister and his words bore far into Gru's brain, convincing him further.

A short minion, however, interrupted Gru's thoughts when he approached him and asked quietly, "Gupta ah boi?" while handing his master something pink and familiar.

Gru reached out and grabbed the small "Swan Lake" ticket that had brought him back to Earth—literally—several months ago during the moon heist. It was wrinkled and torn from having been washed in the washing machine when Gru forgot to take it out of his space suit, but it was easily recognizable. He glanced at the minion.

"Mm pop," he said simply.

Smiling, Gru clenched the ticket tightly in his palm and turned to Nefario. "I made the deceesion to save the gurls and eet was the best choice I ever made."

Suddenly, all the eavesdropping minions began to cheer excitedly, bouncing around and throwing their arms up in the air.

"Fine. If that is your choice, then so be it. But I will not be staying then to watch you become a…a family man. Goodbye, Gru," and the angry Doctor began slowly driving away to pack his things.

The minions ceased their happy cheering and stared, surprised.

Frowning terribly, Gru exclaimed, "Wait!"

Nefario came to halt, but did not turn around.

"You're leaving?"

"I have no choice, Gru."

He couldn't believe it. "Could you at least wait unteel morning so the gurls can say goodbye?" pleaded Gru.

The scientist shook his head and sighed. "Goodbye."

Gru hung his head and watched as his only real friend disappeared around the corner.

* * *

When the girls awoke and hurried downstairs, they found Gru sulking on the crocodile couch.

"What's wrong, Daddy?" asked Agnes curiously, jumping onto the couch to sit beside her father.

Gru sighed sadly. "Dr. Ne—Uncle Nefario ees gone."

Margo brows furled. "Gone? What do you mean gone?" she asked as she made her way over to Gru.

"He left early thees morning. We had a fight and he now hee's gone." He shook his head, depressed. Nefario was his best friend and he had caused him to leave.

"Without saying goodbye?" Agnes was on the verge of tears and so Gru comforted her by wrapping her up in his arms.

"Why did he leave?" wondered Edith. "It wasn't because I put worms in his coffee, was it?" She snickered slightly until realizing that that could have been the reason.

"No, that—What? You put worms in Uncle Nefario's coffee?"

Edith shrugged nonchalantly, sighing inwardly for not being the cause for his departure.

"Ugh. No, you gurls wouldn't understand."

Then Margo said, "Uh, Edith?"

"Yeah?"

"How about you and Agnes go get eat some cereal for breakfast. You know, the kind with marshmallows?"

"Why?" asked Edith stubbornly.

"Because I bet Agnes is hungry and I'll be there in a minute, too."

With an overly exaggerated sigh, Edith said, "Fine. Come on Agnes."

"Yay!" she replied, as if the Nefario issue had never been brought up.

"What was that for?" questioned Gru once the two younger children were in the kitchen fixing up breakfast.

Margo eyed her father seriously. "They may not understand why Uncle Nefario left, but I bet I would."

Gru was surprised by her words and how mature she had just sounded. "Alright," he began sadly.

Margo crawled up onto the couch beside her dad and pulled her knees up her chest. She was all ears.

"I used to be a veellain." He took a side glance at his daughter, expecting some sort of response or gasp, but he saw and heard nothing. So he continued. "I stole all sorts of things so that I could be called the greatest veelian of all time."

That was when Margo cocked a brow at him. "Seriously?" she said, obviously not him.

"Yes! Eet's true! Anyway, the day that you and your seesters were sent back to the, uh, orphanage, I stole the moon."

Margo's expression went downcast. He had left the girls to do a dumb thing like steal the moon, which had almost killed the girls. "You can see how that plan failed."

"Yes, I know, but would you just leesten to the story, please?"

She obeyed and settled down.

"So after I stole the moon, I found my ticket to the dance een my pocket, but by the time I had returned to Earth and arrived at the studio, the show was over and—"

"Wait a minute," said Margo, interrupting Gru. "You…you came to the show?"

"I tried, but eet was over by the time I got there. And Vector had already taken you gurls." Gru shook his head pitifully.

Margo was quiet for several moments. She had no idea that her father had tried to come to the dance and the news, quite frankly, shocked her.

Gru saw the surprised look on his daughter's face and asked, "What ees wrong? What deed I say?"

"I…You never told us that you tried coming to see us."

"I missed eet anyway, so what would be the point?" Gru didn't quite understand.

"But you tried."

"But I missed eet," he returned.

"But you tried."

"Okay, I tried. But I—"

Margo was lightning fast as she latched onto her dad's shoulders in one of the biggest hugs he had ever had. Gru didn't see it, but several tears streamed down Margo's face. "Thank you," she said lovingly.

Gru's wide eyes relaxed as he embraced his daughter sweetly, thankful that she was too tucked away to see the little droplets forming in his own eyes. He still hadn't told her why Nefario had left, but he knew Margo was a smart girl and would probably figure it out by fitting all the little pieces together. Pieces like Nefario never accepting hugs from any of them or never smiling when he was given a drawing by Agnes or Edith or that he never read them a story or let them ride on his scooter. It was no wonder why Edith had put worms in his coffee. He had preferred Gru's evil side and did not like what he had become thanks to the girls.

"You're the greatest dad any of us could have asked for. Villain or not," said Margo into Gru's shoulder.

Smiling, Gru realized what he had been missing through all his years of being evil.

* * *

"Okay, I need two eggs," said Gru, holding out an expecting hand. Two eggs plopped into it moments later and he cracked them into the bowl of cookie batter.

"Will Santa really eat these tonight?" asked Agnes as she picked up an already-baked sugar cookie and shoved it into her mouth, crumbs flying onto the floor, which were quickly gobbled up by Kyle.

"Santa? There ees no such thing as—"

Margo made a sound behind him as if she was clearing her throat.

"Uh, I mean, there ees no such thing as a Santa that doesn't eat cookies." His quick correction worked because Agnes smiled brightly and ate another cookie.

"Don't eat them all, Agnes!" said a frustrated Edith. "We still have to frost them."

"Frosting!" cried Agnes, reaching for the many bowls of colorful substance.

"Ah ah! Not right now. Let me put these een the oven first. Then we can frost those."

"Yay!" Agnes exclaimed, jumping around the kitchen while holding her craftily made unicorn toy that the minions had made her months before.

"Careful, Agnes," warned Margo, watching Agnes bob her toy around crazily. "You'll poke someone's eye—"

"Ah!" shouted Gru.

"—Out."

Agnes gulped and clutched her toy closely.

Their father instantly had a hand to his eye where the unicorn's horn had poked it. "Dave, Steward. Please remove the gurls from the keetchen until the cookies are ready to be frosted."

Two minions, both dressed in aprons, ushered the three children out of the room so Gru could calm down.

Removing his hand to inspect his eye, Gru grabbed a reflective pan and saw how bloodshot his eyeball had become in mere moments. "Ow," he said blatantly.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent frosting cookies—without the help of Agnes's toy—as well as playing with the minions' candy cane maker that they had created down in the lab specifically for making delicious peppermint treats.

But while the girls were having fun, Gru had sadness that lingered in his mind. He would periodically look at the front door, half-expecting his old friend to walk through it and say, "Hey! I've decided that spending the holiday with friends is more important than being evil. Sorry for walking out on you like that!" Alas, though, Nefario didn't come knocking on the door for a second chance.

Gru restrained himself from sulking, especially after his talk with Margo earlier that day, but his minions had nothing holding them back and whenever he visited the lab to check on the progress of the project, he was reminded that he had lost a great friend.

Margo could see his pain and hoped he would feel better in time for Christmas, for that was supposed to be a time of cheer and happiness. She still couldn't help feeling sorry for her dad, though. Nefario had been his closest friend, after all.

But Gru's mood brightened by the end of the day, however, when he visited his lab to find that his project was complete. The minions were fixing tiny glitches, but everything was running smoothly. That had put a smile on Gru's face that continued on for the rest of the night.

* * *

"Tomorrow's Christmas, Daddy!" shouted an excited Agnes.

"I know eet ees, Leetle One, but thank you for reminding me," Gru said, smiling.

"It's going to be so cool!" cheered Edith in her bomb bed.

"I can't wait!" added Margo.

"Okay, settle down, my Leetle Keetens. Time to sleep now." Gru tucked each one of his daughters in and kissed them all gently on the forehead. He flipped the fluffy ball at the end of Edith's Santa hat to the side and out of her eyes.

She giggled as he did so.

"Story!" Agnes yelled.

"Alright. Wheech one shall eet be?" He grabbed a jumble of thin little books and held them out before him.

"One Big Unicorn! One Big Unicorn!" chanted Agnes, pointing wildly.

"Yeah!" cried Edith and Margo simultaneously.

"Ah, I knew you'd peeck that one!" Gru said, grinning. His hand-made book was a favorite among the girls.

He read it enthusiastically and by the time he was done, the three had fallen asleep. "Goodnight, gurls," he whispered before turning out the lights. "May tomorrow be the best day ever."

* * *

6th chapter DONE! It was kinda sad, but the next and final chapter will be awesome and make you all, um, not sad! :D Now I'm off to go plan it out in my fuzzy red Santa hat. Yes, I have a Santa hat, too. EDITH ISN'T THE ONLY ONE! XD


	7. Christmas Day!

Well here it is. At 9am Christmas morning. The final chapter and it is GOOD! Read on! Unless, of course, you're opening presents like I'm about to do! (:

* * *

_Seven Days of Christmas, a _Despicable Me _fanfiction_

_Chapter Seven: Saturday, December 25, Christmas Day!_

The girls awoke bright and early and hurried into their father's bedroom. Like little wolves attacking their prey, the threesome pounced onto Gru's bed with grinning faces. Much to their disappointment and confusion, however, it was empty. No Daddy lay under the covers, unsuspecting of his ecstatic children that would have landed on him had he, in fact, been there.

"Aw, where is he?" Edith questioned to no one in particular as she sat on her feet on the soft comforter, which was very contradicting to the deadly, not-so-soft spiked headboard.

Margo tilted her head slightly. "That's weird."

Agnes, who had landed on the bed in a position like a crouched animal, stood up with her unicorn stuffy and searched the room from her advantageous vantage point. But still, there was no Daddy in sight. "Where could he be?" she asked Margo sweetly.

Shrugging and shaking her head, Margo responded, "Maybe he's downstairs, you know, waiting for us."

"Already?" Edith questioned. "But it's only 5:30."

"You're telling me." Margo yawned sleepily. "Well let's go see."

"Yay!" cheered Agnes, reaching her arms out to Margo who easily removed her from the bed and set her safely on the ground.

The three headed downstairs together, each wearing a pair of slippers, and Edith wearing her fuzzy Santa hat.

"It's Christmas, it's Christmas!" sang Agnes joyously.

"And Christmas means presents!"

"Edith, Dad's tight on money, remember?" cautioned Margo with a frown. She understood that Christmas meant being together with family, but she still would have liked to have gotten something. Her father wasn't rich, though, and they all had to make do with what they had, which was each other.

"So? Didn't some of his weird little helpers get jobs at like, the supermarket and stuff?"

It was true. Several of the minions had successfully found work outside of Gru's laboratory. It had been their own decision and so far, everything had been going well for them. Of course, they had to wear silly disguises to work every day and try their best not to speak to anyone, but at least there was a little bit more income coming in. What would a bunch of minions do with a paycheck anyway? It wasn't like Gru took it from them, though. It was the minions who decided to hand over some of their mullah to the boss for everything he had done for them.

"Edith!" Margo scolded her sibling. "Christmas isn't all about presents. It's our first one with Dad and we should be happy with whatever he decides to do today."

The younger girl frowned and withdrew slightly from Margo.

"Understand?"

Edith nodded and they continued down the stairs.

"Besides, I'm okay with no presents. I'm sure Dad will…" Margo's words trailed off as her eyes grew as big as oranges.

Agnes and Edith saw it too and they all became speechless as their jaws dropped.

"Merry Christmas, gurls," said a smiling Gru beside his massive, sparkling creation that had somehow managed to fit in the living room.

Instantly, Agnes and Edith bolted towards their father at speeds he didn't realize were possible coming from two tiny children. But when they noticed that their oldest sister wasn't beside them, they paused and turned around.

Margo hung back for a moment, still taking it all in. It was amazing. No, utterly beautiful. Never had she seen something as wonderful as what she was looking at then.

"Come on , Margo!" shouted an overjoyed Edith. She hurried back to Margo along with Agnes and together the two grabbed the older girl's hands and ushered her to their dad.

Gru's arms were wide when they arrived and he kneeled down to embrace them all.

Agnes, however, preferred the shoulder and she scurried up Gru's arm like a cricket until she was perched up high.

Giggling, Gru pulled back to see his daughters. Every one of them had a smile the size of the moon itself plastered on their faces and their eyes were as bright as the stars, which were probably still shining at 5:30 in the morning.

"It's so cool!" cried Edith, a little too close to her dad's ears.

He cringed, but smiled still.

"So I am thinking that you gurls like eet?" he said in a questioning tone, although he knew the answer already.

"Yeah!" Edith said excitedly.

Then Agnes slid off her dad's shoulder to inspect the giant structure alongside Edith.

"While you are under there, keep your eyes peeled for a few leetle treats I got for you gurls," advised Gru.

That made the two children double their inspection efforts.

"You…made this?" Margo asked quietly, not quite believing her eyes yet. "For us?"

Gru continued to kneel in front of her. "I thought eet was customary to do put one up." He was suddenly nervous that he had been wrong.

"Miss Hattie never had a tree for the orphanage, so I guess I sorta forgot about it." Margo couldn't take her eyes off it. It was huge!

"Well, I am not Meess Hattie and you are not at the orphanage. You are home and at home there ees a Christmas tree for Christmas."

With her smile widening, Margo looked at her dad and nodded.

"Now, there ees a leetle something for you under there eef you want to look for eet." He motioned for her to look under the tree and she was quick to join her sisters.

Gru hadn't intentionally hidden the gifts, but the tree took up almost a quarter of the living room and so the base was a place where anything could get lost under. The minions had to take separate pieces of the tree up from the lab and then put it together in the house because common sense said that it simply would not fit in the lift.

They had worked all morning on it, putting it together again, making sure every piece sparkled when it was time. Gru had helped as well and oversaw its completion while he and the minions nibbled on the cookies that were left for Santa. And now it was finished and his girls had obviously never seen anything quite like it and certainly never would again.

Gru glanced up at his fine work and grinned with pride. The tree, if one could really call it such, wasn't a real coniferous and it wasn't even green. There weren't fake pine needles anywhere to make it more natural-looking. No, it was completely the opposite of anything natural. The trunk was made up of a strong, light-weight, steel aloe that held it up sturdily. The rest was made entirely out of thin metal sheets that branched out from the trunk in all directions, resembling the shape of an actual Christmas tree. And because the whole thing was metal, every bit of light that hit it caused everything to sparkle in a dancing array of colors that reflected off the little sheets and bounced on the walls and ceilings. The sun wasn't out, though, and so there was hardly any sparkling going on. But that problem would be solved shortly.

"UNICORN!" screamed Agnes suddenly from deep within the tree's base.

No longer staring at the tree, Gru looked down to find Agnes emerging. In her arms was a brand new, minion-made unicorn toy. At least this time they used fabric and attempted to stitch together a toy, as opposed to using household items like a toilet cleaner. The attempt, while noble, was lacking in skill. Stuffing popped out of the seams and already one of the eyes had gone missing, but none of that apparently matter to Agnes.

"It's beautiful," she said, a bit more calmly this time, to several minions that had emerge from the lab and had come to watch the Christmas morning unravel.

"Pa poi," one said, smiling.

Edith then crawled out from under the silver tree and shouted, "Oh yes! A hat!" She held it up and waved it around her head before ditching the Santa hat and plopping on her multicolored kitten cap that came complete with little cat ears and cute black eyes.

"Haha, I knew you would like that, Edith," commented Gru delightfully. "Have you found your present yet, Margo?"

Just then, the oldest girl emerged with a strange look on her face and an odd-looking contraption in her hand. "It's, uh, what is it?" she asked as kindly as she could, afraid of hurting her father's feelings if he had thought that the answer should have been obvious.

"Eet's a camera! I made eet!" Gru said proudly.

A minion approached Gru then and said with a not-so-happy look on his face, "Ma opta."

Gru frowned before giving Margo an innocent grin. "Well, I made eet weeth their help." He motioned to the yellow bean things in the room. "Heh."

The minion nodded and smiled up at Margo as she clutched the hand-made camera. She wasn't exactly sure how well it would work, but she did enjoy photography thanks to her creative side, so either way, she loved her gift. "Thanks, Dad. It's great."

For a moment, Agnes abandoned her unicorn toy to check out Margo's funky camera, but then something else caught her eye. "Candy!"

"What? Where?" asked Edith curiously, searching the room for the goodies that Agnes had apparently spotted.

"In the stockings!" Margo said, pointing towards the window that their stockings hung below.

Gru giggled. "Now don't eat eet all at once or you weell be seeck. And then there wouldn't be room for cookies!" But already his daughters were digging into their "sockies" madly.

Sighing, Gru took in the delightful sight of his three girls blissfully tearing apart their candies, all the while still clutching their presents, except for Edith who was wearing hers. A sudden tug on his pant leg brought him out of his pleasant revere. "Yes, Dave?"

"Ah, gopta oh mi poi, eh, es min peck tico?" The little minion stood with his hands clasped behind his back while he innocently twisted from side to side and stared up at Gru.

"That's right! Gurls, gurls! I have to show you something!" he said as he stepped back towards the crocodile couch and removed a small red and green remote from his jacket pocket.

"Ooh! What is it?" Agnes wondered.

"Come over here and you weell see," responded her father, smiling wildly.

Dave, the minion, walked over to Gru and asked before he could press any buttons on his remote, "Es min peck tico?"

"Oh, uh, fine. You and Steward are no longer grounded, but I'm not asking for your help to hold anymore ladders." He waved a finger at Dave sternly and the minion bounced happily and ran over to Steward to hug him now that they were no longer grounded from the TV or tea time.

"Okay, anyway," continued Gru. "Here we go!" And he directed his remote at the giant tree and pressed its silver center button.

All the girls grinned expectant and wiggled beside Gru with excitement.

But nothing happened.

"Huh?" said Gru, suddenly very confused and becoming angry as he repeatedly clicked the button. "What ees the problem? Minions, check eet out!"

"Um, nothing happened."

"I know that, Edith. I don't know what the problem ees. Eet worked perfectly down een the lab." Gru frantically pushed the buttons on the remote, hoping for a response, but the tree did nothing.

"Is it broken?" asked Agnes.

"I…eet…" He didn't understand and neither could the minions who had come up empty when trying to fix the problem.

"Do I have to do everything?" asked a familiar voice in the hallway.

Everyone's eyes went wide and the minions flooded over to…

"Uncle Nefario!" cried all three girls as they hurried over to him, squeezing past the many minions.

Gru's eyes went wide and he stopped messing with his remote. "Dr. Nefario? You are back." He stared for a moment. "You are back!" He, too, rushed up to greet his old friend who was seated in his scooter.

"Yes, yes, well I decided that maybe I was a bit too rash in my decision to leave. I had some time to think and I suppose spending Christmas with you guys is more important than being evil. I'm, uh…" He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry for walking out like that."

"Yay!" cried Agnes, jumping up beside her uncle.

"So you'll stay?" Margo questioned hopefully.

"I'll stay."

Gru smiled at Dr. Nefario and extended his hand to him. He took it happily.

"Now, I see that you are having some technical difficulties," commented Nefario in an attempt to stop the hugging and mushiness going around.

"Eet was working fine before, but now I am getting nothing." He frowned at the remote.

Dr. Nefario drove his scooter over to the tree then and said after only a moment of inspecting it, "Do you think _this_ could be your problem?" In his wrinkly old hand was a black cord that stuck out from the tree.

Gru blushed. How could he have missed that? Better yet, how could the minions have missed it? "Gurls, eet's ready! Eet's…where's Margo?" wondered Gru as he scanned the room.

"Here I am!" she announced as she headed back down the stairs. No one even saw her leave, but now she had returned and with something in her hand and a weird-looking dog on her heels.

"It's your stocking, Daddy," said Agnes lovingly as she scooped up Kyle. "We made it for you."

"Yeah, and there's a card in there too." Edith smiled.

Margo handed her father the stocking and watched his face light up as he read the glittery, colorful card, trying to ignore the close proximity of his dog.

"'For being the best dad in the whole, wide world, have a very merry Christmas! From your favorite kittens, Agnes, Edith and Margo.'" Gru was speechless momentarily, but he looked up at his girls and managed a loving smile. "Eet's beautiful. Thank you."

"You're welcome," said the girls in unison.

"I drew the unicorn!" commented Agnes, as if no one would have been able to figure it out.

"And eet ees very nice. Eet ees all very nice. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful card and socky."

Margo giggled quietly at her dad's mispronunciation of the word "stocking" for the hundredth time that week.

"Now what did you want to show us?" asked Edith delightfully.

"Ah, yes! Uncle Nefario, if you would be so kind?"

The Doctor smiled and plugged the black cord into the wall socket. He yelped as sparks burst from the wall and into his face, creating a cloud of black smoke that choked the Doctor and sent him rolling back.

Gru didn't seem to hear him struggling and he pressed the silver button. The tree flickered before going dark, as did every other light in the house.

The girls gasped.

"Deedn't I tell you to use the energy converters?" Gru growled while glaring at his many minions in the dark.

They shied away, realizing that they had forgotten to put the small contraptions into the tree's creation to prevent it from blowing a fuse. Dave punched Jorge's arm, as if it had been his entire fault. Jorge grumbled sadly. It probably had been.

"Weell someone flip the sweetch back, please?"

Dave then grabbed Jorge and squeezed around his midsection until a small crack could be heard. Then he was shaken up and down madly before being told to lead the way. Jorge's glowing yellow body acted as their glowstick flashlight. It took several minutes of bickering and occasional tripping in the dim light to find the fuse box somewhere at the other end of the house. But nonetheless, it had been found.

Then all at once, the tree ignited into a brilliant show of flickering colors that bounced all over the room. Gru had been very clever and had put tiny little lights around the center of the tree so that once they were turned on, the colors would find their way out and sparkle across the room.

And that's what they did.

The whole living room was washed in a rainbow array of colors that lit up everyone's eyes and crafted smiles on their faces, even Dr. Nefario's who was jittery after he had been electrocuted.

Gru had outdone himself and he knew it and he hadn't managed to hurt himself, but it was only six in the morning so there was still plenty of time for that. Putting his arms around his children's shoulders, he said, "Merry Christmas, gurls," and hugged them close.

* * *

I'm actually a little sad that I'm done. It was a great ride, though, and I'm so happy for all the lovely comments that really helped keep me going with this fic. Yes, I know that Gru didn't get hurt in this chapter, but Nefario sorta did when he got electrocuted! Lol! Now I hope that everyone has a WONDERFUL holiday, which ever kind you celebrate if you celebrate at all, and be safe and have fun!


End file.
